nuanced
Americanadjective
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expressing or involving subtle distinctions: Life is wonderfully nuanced, textured, complicated, beautiful, and rich.
Their opinions are always nuanced and informing.
Life is wonderfully nuanced, textured, complicated, beautiful, and rich.
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characterized by slight difference or variation in color, tone, flavor, etc..
Dawn and dusk imposed softer, darker shades of nuanced, shadowed light.
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of nuanced
Explanation
Something that's nuanced has subtle details that make it complex and interesting. A nuanced conversation isn't just small talk — it really makes you think. Nuanced is one of those words that attempts to capture an elusive quality. When a book or movie is described as nuanced, it implies a work that's meaningful and complicated, with relationships between characters that seem as multi-layered and subtle as real life. Nuance means "slight degree of difference," from the French nuer, "to shade," and a Latin root that means "a cloud or vapor."
Vocabulary lists containing nuanced
Their Eyes Were Watching God
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Love Radio
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Gather
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
What transpired down under was a more nuanced set of conditions, far more akin to what we would expect in the UK.
From BBC • Jun. 2, 2026
Ancient DNA research already suggested a much more nuanced picture.
From Science Daily • May 30, 2026
They should not, however, be expected to carry over this nuanced perception of racism in other settings.
From Slate • May 28, 2026
But the policy memo the agency sent its individual adjudicators took a much more nuanced stance.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 26, 2026
This is an intriguing statistic: the same people who routinely steal more than 10 percent of his bagels almost never stoop to stealing his money box—a tribute to the nuanced social calculus of theft.
From "Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything" by Steven D. Levitt
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
